As the consumption of fresh-brewed coffee and teas has increased in the recent past, so has the public's demand for the highest quality coffee and tea available. Consequently, awareness of the availability of gourmet coffee and tea has gone from mere acceptance to outright demand. Whether at home, in a restaurant, or at a specialty beverage store, the public has come to expect quality beverages, in whatever flavor desired, made quickly and using the freshest possible ingredients. Moreover, the availability of many different varieties of gourmet beverages, such as various coffee beans, flavored coffee roasts, imported teas, etc., has resulted in establishments such as takeout restaurants receiving many simultaneous requests for single cups of differing beverages and flavors.
In modern times, consumers often demand portability and disposability for their beverages and containers because they often are too busy to sit down and relax over their beverage. In addition, the increasingly hectic consumer lifestyle dictates that some consumers, rather than waiting for custom beverages to be ordered and prepared, would rather save time by carrying their beverages with them as the beverages brewed. The other alternative for the consumer has been to consume pre-prepared bulk beverage, such as the coffee available at fast-food drive-throughs.
Responding to the demand for high-quality, rapidly-prepared beverages for all categories of users, however, presents notable disadvantages which have not been adequately addressed in prior art filters and devices. For example, it is known in the art of coffee-making to prepare hot coffee by passing water, usually at or just below boiling temperature, through coffee grounds which are prevented from passage with the water by a filter such as a permeable paper membrane. This well-known method is called drip brewing.
Traditional drip brewing devices brew an entire multi-serving pot at once and are commonplace in homes, offices, and retail stores. These devices, however, are impractical and wasteful for the beverage drinker who wants only a single serving, especially since beverages such as coffee significantly lose their flavor with time. Because beverages such as coffee have increased in price significantly in recent years, waste also is a recurring economic problem. Further, drip brewing presents Epicurean disadvantages because paper filters trap many of the coffee's oils and therefore removes some of the flavor nuances. Also, paper filters of poor quality can introduce extraneous flavors of their own.
One response in the prior art to the problem of portioning has been the development of "single cup" coffee-making machines and assemblies. Unfortunately, these prior-art methods require devices which are neither disposable nor portable during the brewing process. Therefore, each consumer must idly wait for the period between ordering the beverage and having it served. Another problem involved in brewing coffee in this manner, especially small quantities of coffee, is the difficulty in obtaining efficient extraction of the essential flavors of the coffee when the hot water mingles with the grounds.
Still another problem with the prior-art method is the fact that existing single-cup beverage filters of this type require some type of support structure to hold the entire filter within it. The problems with this are twofold: when removing the wet, limp filter from the filter support there is increased possibility of spillage of the beverage or burstage of the filter; and the necessity of the support structure to hold the filter usually renders the system neither portable nor disposable.
Because of the aforementioned problems, some beverage drinkers resort to well-known "instant" products such as tea bags, instant coffee, and coffee filter pouches. Each method presents certain disadvantages. For example, although using tea bags can result in an acceptable beverage, the consumer is limited to brands, types, and flavors of tea that are available already in the tea bag format. Tea bags usually use a lower quality tea because at present, the fine grain teas that must be used are only commercially produced from relatively low quality tea leaves. Consequently, tea bags are not a satisfactory option for consumers desiring quickly prepared and portable single portions of high quality tea (such as the type sold loosely and prepared freshly by relatively long steeping).
The steeping process is considered the best procedure for brewing coffee or loose teas. Steeping allows for the free flow of liquids and solids (tea leaves, grinds or grounds) to interact unencumbered by any material or object. The disposable beverage filter of the instant invention allows for the true process of steeping to occur in a disposable manner without the use of any additional apparatus. No other product or invention in the marketplace allows for the steeping process to occur in an individual container, while being disposable, inexpensive, and used for a take-out format.
One approach on the market, that of "self-filling tea bags" only allow for different varieties of tea to be prepared, but do not allow for the steeping method to take place. As mentioned above, proper steeping can only take place when there is a free flow of liquid and solids.
"Instant" products also do not meet the needs of all coffee drinkers. Instant coffee and filter pouches (which are not unlike tea bags, but are instead filled with a form of instant coffee), although convenient, disposable, and portable, produce an inferior and far less flavorful cup of coffee than that made by more traditional brewing methods, such as drip-brewing and steeping. The inferior results occur because instant coffee that is submerged in boiling water or combined with boiling water does not allow water to come into free contact with coffee grains. Water-grain contact is necessary to allow the free flow of water to combine unencumbered among the coffee grains to maximize the essential oils and flavors into the beverage. Instant products simply do not have this feature and will not satisfy all beverage drinkers. Further, because of the inherent limitations in the coffee pouch format, high quality roasts of the best coffees (i.e., arabica) are not available.
Individual brewing devices that mount directly on a receiving receptacle have been developed. For example, in U.S. Pat. No, 4, 619,830 a device is disclosed that uses a filter suspended on a rod, where the filter can hang within a cup. This device is inherently unstable in that the filter bag is supported in just two places over the rod. In addition, the placement of the rod on top of and overhanging the edges of cup means that a user cannot put a lid on the cup. Consequently, this method does not preserve the temperature of the liquid. In addition, the great possibility of spillage and tipping over mean that this invention is not truly portable.
Another prior art device is a coffee cone, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,083. The cone comes pre-packaged with beverage material located within the pouch. Hence, the user does not have true flexibility in selecting the freshest or most preferred product. This method, like tea bags and microwavable coffee pouches, limits the user to what varieties of products are commercially pre-packaged. In addition, since this device has a conical shape with a fixed rim, it is not adaptable to many different shapes of beverage containers. The flanges present on this invention also limit the ability of the user to cover the coffee cone during brewing. Possibility of spillage and/or loss in beverage temperature is thus increased.
It is impractical and wasteful to accommodate simultaneously consumer demands for freshness, disposability, high quality, and efficiency using present filters or beverage making devices. Each of the apparatuses and articles of manufacture of the disclosures above, as well as well as articles of manufacture and apparatuses generally known in the art, suffer on or more of several defective characteristics which ultimately detract from brewing performance, efficiency, and/or high quality results of the apparatus or article of manufacture.